First, my wife's vehicle, 2005 Toyota RAV 4 AWD
I went for a wheel alignment and told them banging noise over small bumps. They came back with the struts have separated and could come through the roof. Price for Monroe's installed $800. 2005 Toyota RAV 4 AWD, 150,000 miles on the vehicle, front struts, no other work. I thought that was too much.
So I went to another mechanic who installed a timing belt last year for $90, maybe less, belt and labor.
He gave me a price for Moog, saying it was the Best and he'd been installing them for years with no problem. Price was $320 for the two loaded struts and $120 for labor. I told him $120 was too cheap and he said $160, OK. I wanted to be fair. So I'm at $480 which is $300 cheaper than the other place. When I picked up the RAV, the box said FCS, on line they are $92 each, $184 plus shipping. He told me he has no markup on parts, $320 is what they cost him. I was upset because I know FCS are low end but he said lifetime guarantee and he would also guarantee the labor. I was kinda of stuck because they were already installed. Plus he found some arm that was bad, a thin 15" arm, like a stabilizing arm, $60 plus $30 labor. One end of the arm you could not move in a circle, he said it should move easily. The other end had play in it. With the old struts, you could turn the tops around in a circle, he said they are only suppose to go about half way around, plus one had looseness in it.
Regarding the tightness of the arm, is this true?
Regarding the top of the struts, are you not suppose to be able to turn them in circles?
Did I get ripped off with the price he charged?
Am I in trouble with FCS? Are they going to fail early? After how many miles of normal driving?
I went for a wheel alignment and told them banging noise over small bumps. They came back with the struts have separated and could come through the roof. Price for Monroe's installed $800. 2005 Toyota RAV 4 AWD, 150,000 miles on the vehicle, front struts, no other work. I thought that was too much.
So I went to another mechanic who installed a timing belt last year for $90, maybe less, belt and labor.
He gave me a price for Moog, saying it was the Best and he'd been installing them for years with no problem. Price was $320 for the two loaded struts and $120 for labor. I told him $120 was too cheap and he said $160, OK. I wanted to be fair. So I'm at $480 which is $300 cheaper than the other place. When I picked up the RAV, the box said FCS, on line they are $92 each, $184 plus shipping. He told me he has no markup on parts, $320 is what they cost him. I was upset because I know FCS are low end but he said lifetime guarantee and he would also guarantee the labor. I was kinda of stuck because they were already installed. Plus he found some arm that was bad, a thin 15" arm, like a stabilizing arm, $60 plus $30 labor. One end of the arm you could not move in a circle, he said it should move easily. The other end had play in it. With the old struts, you could turn the tops around in a circle, he said they are only suppose to go about half way around, plus one had looseness in it.
Regarding the tightness of the arm, is this true?
Regarding the top of the struts, are you not suppose to be able to turn them in circles?
Did I get ripped off with the price he charged?
Am I in trouble with FCS? Are they going to fail early? After how many miles of normal driving?
